Boxing is a video game interpretation of the sport of boxing developed by programmer Bob Whitehead for the Atari VCS (later renamed to the Atari 2600). It was published by Activision in 1980. It's one of the first video games developed by Activision. The game is based on Boxer, an unreleased 1978 arcade game from Whitehead's previous employer, Atari, Inc.
Boxing (Atari 2600)
Boxer was written by Mike Albaugh who also wrote Drag Race for Atari, a game cloned by Activision as Dragster.
Boxing shows a top-down view of two boxers, one white and one black. When close enough, a boxer can hit his opponent with a punch (executed by pressing the fire button on the Atari joystick). This causes his opponent to reel back slightly. Long punches score one point, while closer punches (power punches, from the manual) score two. There are no knockdowns or rounds. A match is completed either when one player lands 100 punches (a 'knockout') or two minutes have elapsed (a 'decision'). In the case of a decision, the player with the most landed punches is the winner. Ties are possible.
While the gameplay is simple, there are subtleties, such as getting an opponent on the 'ropes' and 'juggling' him back and forth between alternate punches.
Boxing was reviewed by Video magazine in its 'Arcade Alley' column where it was described as 'demonstrat[ing] Activision's willingness to strike out boldly in new directions' and praised for keeping things from 'becoming needlessly complex' by making automatic punch-type selection for the player.
Boxing was made available on Microsoft's Game Room service in 2010. In 2011, an extended academic version of the game, called Clever Boxer, was developed as a benchmark for Game AI.
More details about this game can be found on
Wikipedia.org.
Find digital download of this game on
GOG
or
Steam.
Videogame Console:
This version of Boxing was designed for Atari 2600, which was commercially very successful video game console of second generation produced by Atari from 1977 to 1992. It was the first console that used removable memory modules with games. At the time of its greatest fame, more than 30 million units of this console were sold for about $ 200 a piece. To date, the game library for this console contains nearly 1,000 original games. More information about the
Atari 2600 can be found here.
Recommended Game Controllers:
You can control this game easily by using the keyboard of your PC (see the table next to the game). However, for maximum gaming enjoyment, we strongly recommend using a USB joystick that you simply plug into the USB port of your computer. If you do not have a joystick, buy a suitable USB controller on Amazon or AliExpress or in some of your favorite online stores.
Available online emulators:
5 different online emulators are available for Boxing. These emulators differ not only in the technology they use to emulate old games, but also in support of various game controllers, multiplayer mode, mobile phone touchscreen, emulation speed, absence or presence of embedded ads and in many other parameters. For
maximum gaming enjoyment, it's important to choose the right emulator, because on each PC and in different Internet browsers, the individual emulators behave differently. The basic
features of each emulator available for this game Boxing are summarized in the following table:
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